Friday, September 28, 2012

Technology offers so many opportunities to help improve users’ lives. This means it is really important to focus or we end up doing too much with too little impact. So today we’re winding down a bunch more features—bringing the total to nearly 60 since we started our “spring” clean last fall.

AdSense for Feeds was designed to help publishers earn revenue from their content by placing ads on their RSS feeds. Starting October 2, we’ll begin to retire this feature—and on December 3 we’ll close it. Publishers can continue to use FeedBurner URLs powered by Google, so they won’t need to redirect subscribers to different URLs. For more information visit the AdSense Help Center.

Classic Plus is a Google Search feature that lets people upload or select images to use as a background on Google.com. Users won’t be able to upload new pictures starting from October 16, and we'll turn the service off in November 2012. You'll continue to have access to any images you've uploaded.

Google storage in Picasa and Drive will be consolidated over the next few months, so users will have five GB of free storage across both services. If you’re paying for storage, your free storage will now be counted towards your total. So if you buy a 100GB plan, it will give you 100GB of total storage instead of adding to what you already had. We believe this approach will make it much easier for users. For both free and paid storage, people at or near their current storage limits will have the same amount of storage after this change.

Spreadsheet Gadgets were designed to allow people to add customized features to Google Spreadsheets. But most popular gadgets have now been added directly into charts in spreadsheets. So we will slowly start turning off Gadgets in Spreadsheets next year.

Starting on October 15, we'll stop issuing and displaying Google News Badges, as well as showing Recommended Sections. People can still tailor their Google News experience by adding custom sections or adjusting the frequency with which news sources appear.

We've mergedInsights for Search into a revamped Google Trends. You can now see search trends and compare search volume patterns across specific regions, categories, time frames and properties in a single place: google.com/trends. We will no longer support Trends for Websites, which allowed people to compare traffic to and audiences of different websites.

Places Directory was an Android app that helped people find nearby places of interest. We've removed the app from Google Play and are taking down the Places Directory site because users can find everything in Google Maps for Mobile, which offers a much better user experience.

We introduced +1 Reports in Webmaster Tools to help publishers measure +1 activity on their pages. Given that webmasters now use Social Reports in Google Analytics to get a wider view of social activity (including +1’s), we'll be discontinuing the stand-alone +1 Reports on November 14. Measuring social media remains a priority for Google Analytics, so stay tuned for future improvements.

We want people to have a beautifully simple experience when using Google. These changes will enable us to focus better so that we can do more to help improve the products that millions of people use multiple times a day.

As part of our event this week, we also announced the latest addition to our Google Earth Outreach Grants program: Google Maps Coordinate. Google Maps Coordinate is a workforce management tool that allows organizations to quickly and easily assign jobs to field workers, improving operational efficiency and communication. We’re looking forward to helping non-profits use Google Maps Coordinate to do things like deploy urban forestry teams, urban car-sharing services, or mobile health workers to conduct surveys in villages. Eligible non-profits in the U.S., U.K. and Canada are welcome to apply for a Google Maps Coordinate grant today.

Every Friday, we’re posting Google+ tips to help publishers make the most of all of the features and resources available. Be sure to check back each week for the latest in our educational Social Fridays series!

We know publishers love metrics, and so following on last week's look at Google+ Ripples, today we’ll show you how you can analyze the impact of your Google+ page with Social Reports in Google Analytics.

If you’re already using Analytics to measure traffic to and interaction with your pages, be sure to use Social Reports to analyze your social media efforts. The Social Sources report will show you the social networks that are driving traffic to your site or any specific page, and help you identify which content is popular across various networks. In addition, you can compare the time spent on your site by visitors coming from various networks to see where engagement is the highest.

Also be sure to visit the Social Sharing report to gain an understanding of which of your social media share buttons are being clicked and for which content. Analytics will automatically report the +1 activity you receive from visitors on your site, and other social plug-ins can be easily adapted to report to Analytics.

Give these reports a try to gain a better understanding of how your social efforts are impacting user engagement. Have you made any updates to your content or your +page after viewing these reports? Visit our AdSense +page to share your tips with other readers.

Now that you know how to monitor your success with Google+, tune in next week when we’ll share a publisher case study. Have a great weekend!

On October 8th and 9th the second German-speaking Google Analytics User Conference (http://www.analytics-konferenz.at) is coming up. The conference will be held at the Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna, Austria.

The Google Analytics User Conference is a two-day event, featuring a Google Analytics Training Day (12/10/08) for beginners and the Google Analytics Conference (12/10/09). The Conference will include 24 different sessions in three tracks, which provide a valuable insight into new Google Analytics technologies, efficient strategies, optimization and trends. Here are some highlights from the agenda:

The interactive and informative day is designed to help all attendees getting the most out of Google Analytics. It connects people who love and use Google Analytics, Google team members, opinion leaders, industry experts, online-marketers, web-developers and others who are interested in web analytics. Take the opportunity to learn from Google Analytics pros and peers and share your experience and knowledge. Register now and get:

Tips and tricks from industry insiders to improve the bottom line

Tactical and practical advice which you can apply rapidly

Guidance how to manage multiple campaigns across multiple platforms

Align Google Analytics with overall business goals, etc.

Tickets:

Attendees can choose one day or the other, or may attend both days at a discounted rate.

This is an event not to be missed! We are looking forward to meeting many of you at the conference. See you soon!

Presenting Partners

The conference is presented by the following Google Analytics Certified Partners and leading agencies in Austria and Germany: e-dialog, elements and webalytics. Furthermore the event is being produced in cooperation with national and international companies, associations and media: Monster Worldwide, Searchmetrics, intelliAd, Digital Analytics Association, DMVOE, Marketing Community Austria, WirtschaftsBlatt, Computerwelt, Horizont, Werbeplanung.at, ITPress, iBusiness, t3n, WebsiteBoosting, eStrategy and Conversion Boosting.

Our quest to create the most comprehensive and accurate map of the world is ongoing, but we’re happy to take a pause and share some impressive progress that our Google Maps and Earth imagery teams have recently made. We’ve refreshed the high resolution aerial and satellite imagery for many places around the world, and released some new 45 degree imagery as well.

New 45° imagery available for 51 cities:

In addition, 45° imagery is now available in Google Maps for 37 U.S. and 14 international locations. Below are some examples of the beautiful new views from Pisa, Italy and Winnipeg, Canada.

Probably one of the most famous landmarks in the world is the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Its construction started back in 1173 and extended over a period of almost 350 years. Due to increasing incline during the last Century, a stabilization effort was performed that took almost two decades to complete. Today the tower is said to be safe from collapsing for at least 200 more years.

In the language of the native Cree people, the city’s name of Winnipeg means “muddy waters.” The first European settlements in the area were several fur trading posts started around 1738. Today Winnipeg’s economic and educational significance within Canada is undoubted. Below is an image of The Forks which designates the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers.

Collaborative subtitling hub Viki has opened a new channel on YouTube called tezukaanime bringing classic titles like Astro Boy to a global audience. The original animation series are in Japanese, but thanks to Viki’s crowdsourcing, polyglot community, the YouTube videos have captions available in as many languages as the community contributes.

The channel currently hosts 16 full-episodes of the iconic Astro Boy series from the 1980s, with subtitles uploaded so far in English, Arabic, Romanian, Turkish, Spanish, French, and transcribed Japanese. As more translators finish captions in new languages, Viki will add them to the videos on YouTube. The channel’s videos are available everywhere other than Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Italy and Spain.

Other titles on the channel include Jungle Emperor Leo, Black Jack, Dear Brother, The New Adventures of Kimba the White Lion, Don Dracula, and Marvelous Melmo, with more exciting titles to come soon. Subscribe to the channel to find out anytime new episodes are added.

Earlier this week we shared how today's consumers expect more -- much more -- from mobile sites. They told us so in our recent research survey, What Users Want Most From Mobile Sites Today.

Today we'll share more results, with some great examples of businesses giving mobile users what they want. Whether you're a Fortune 500 company or the pizza shop down on the corner, creating a mobile-friendly site is a critical step: 67% of mobile users say that they’re more likely to buy a product or service from a mobile-friendly site, and 74% say they’re more likely to return to that site in the future.

How are smart companies making mobile sites work for them?

Less is more: ProFlowers

For their new mobile site, the flower retailer ProFlowers simplified things by highlighting the most popular bouquets to reduce scrolling, by trimming text, and by cutting checkout steps. How well has it worked? “Since becoming mobile-friendly, we’ve seen our mobile conversion rate jump by 20–30%," says Leif Heikkila, the company's senior director of online marketing. Download the case study.

Bigger is better: FragranceNet.com

FragranceNet sells perfumes and colognes, yes, but also face creams, shampoos, eyeliner and more. For Michael Nadboy, the company's VP of online marketing and strategic development, the trick to mobile success was to show bigger product images and buttons, larger font sizes, and fewer images overall. Mobile users loved it: FragranceNet boosted mobile sales by 48% in just four months. Download the case study.

Speed sells: TicketNetwork

Rock concerts, Broadway shows, NASCAR races: TicketNetwork’s mobile site helps on-the-go fans find tickets for them all. The company redesigned its mobile site with speed in mind, stripping away all non-essential content and graphics. They also trimmed steps from the checkout process to help mobile users buy fast. Four months after introducing the new mobile site, web traffic from mobile devices was up 120% and overall sales from mobile had grown by 184%. Download the case study.

You can see the keys to mobile site success: big buttons and text, less content, fewer steps to checkout, and a focus on speed.

What kind of mobile content is most important? The users we surveyed listed "Get directions”, “Find operating hours" and “Click to call the business” as some of their most-wanted mobile tasks. They also showed clear differences in mobile usage by business category. For instance:

Posted by Jeff Ellingson, Product ManagerFor many years, we've supported two open protocols for accessing Gmail and Calendar from mobile appsand devices: IMAP for email and CalDAV for calendar. These protocols, combined with the options toaccess Gmail, Calendar, and Contacts with your desktop or mobile browser and via native apps on iOS andAndroid, help ensure you have a great experience regardless of the device you use.Starting today, we're adding CardDAV - an open protocol for contacts - to that list. CardDAV enables 3rdparty clients, like the iOS contacts app, to sync your Google contacts. By supporting IMAP, CalDAV, andCardDAV together, we’re making it possible for 3rd parties to build a seamless Google Account syncexperience.To sync your Google Contacts on iOS using CardDAV, please follow these instructions in our Gmail HelpCenter.

Posted by Jeff Ellingson, Product ManagerFor many years, we've supported two open protocols for accessing Gmail and Calendar from mobile appsand devices: IMAP for email and CalDAV for calendar. These protocols, combined with the options toaccess Gmail, Calendar, and Contacts with your desktop or mobile browser and via native apps on iOS andAndroid, help ensure you have a great experience regardless of the device you use.Starting today, we're adding CardDAV - an open protocol for contacts - to that list. CardDAV enables 3rdparty clients, like the iOS contacts app, to sync your Google contacts. By supporting IMAP, CalDAV, andCardDAV together, we’re making it possible for 3rd parties to build a seamless Google Account syncexperience.To sync your Google Contacts on iOS using CardDAV, please follow these instructions in our Gmail HelpCenter.

Mobile app measurement is critical to the future of marketers, developers and entrepreneurs. Since the Mobile App Analytics beta launch in July, we’ve been receiving great feedback from many app developers and advertisers in the beta testing program. We’ve been using that feedback as well as our own roadmap to improve Mobile App Analytics. This week we’re excited to share new versions of the beta SDKs with a few important updates:

Added armv7s (iOS6) support

This will enable app tracking within iOS6 apps / compatibility with new Apple devices.

Added support for social interaction tracking

Are there social elements in your apps? Understanding how they are used is critical to improve their performance - especially as the integration of social and mobile grows closer.

Refined Google Play sources reports

This fixes a bug that previously prevented Google Play sources report from accurately reporting campaigns on most devices running Honeycomb or later.

Fixed CoreData issue in iOS SDK and several issues in Android SDK

Our use of coredata on iOS is more compatible with multi-threaded environments; and fixed the issue for Honeycomb and later devices to measure install campaigns for google play properly.

As a reminder, here’s the link to enroll the mobile app analytics beta and start your journey with the new Google Mobile App Analytics.

For users who are using old SDKs (v1), updates are also available for iOS and Android, with the two major updates:

Added armv7s (iOS6) support

Added support for 50 custom variables (Premium only)

Please keep the questions and suggestions coming as you try out the updated SDKs.

Congratulations to Jessica of GonetotheSnowDogs! Her channel, featuring her huskies Shiloh, Shelby, and Oakley, is our September featured “On The Rise” partner. Check out the “Spotlight” section of the YouTube homepage today to meet these quirky, entertaining pups.

Jessica has been filming her dogs and sharing their antics with the world via YouTube, of course for the last three years. While all centered around the three star huskies, the videos run the gamut from fun and entertaining to educational and instructional. Head on over to Jessica’s channel to see Shiloh and Shelby ‘singing’ a duet (it earned them a feature on Animal Planet!) and all three dogs reacting to a new present meant to help them cool down in the summer. If you have a dog of your own, you might be interested in Jessica’s tutorial videos, which cover topics like how to make your own chicken jerky dog treats.

Here are a few words from Jessica:

Almost three years ago, I put up a silly video of my dogs onto YouTube, and look what it has now grown to! I never thought that our dogs would be so loved by people all over the world! It started off as just showing the dogs and the silly things they do day by day, and it has turned into a combination of fun, and educational videos uploaded 3 times a week. You ask, and we will do our best to answer when it comes to questions about Siberian Huskies, or dogs in general! We are always willing to help when we can! We hope you enjoy what you see on our channel! How can someone not love dogs! And with the three we have, you get a variety of personalities you will come to love! Shiloh is the quite one, Shelby is the crazy one, and Oakley is the oddball still finding her place here (we just adopted her this past February.) We want to say thank you to YouTube for giving us this amazing opportunity, Thank you to our fans, friends, and family, for all of your love and support! Thank you to the stars of the channel, Shiloh, Shelby, and Oakley, for allowing me to point a camera at you all the time! Subscribe to our channel, and experience the joy that a dog can bring into your life!

If you’ve enjoyed this monthly On The Rise blog series and want to see more rising YouTube partners, check out our On The Rise channel. Keep an eye out for next month’s blog post, as your channel may be the next one On The Rise!

Your Takeout menu is growing. Today's entrée: YouTube videos.Previously, you've been able to download individual transcoded videos from your YouTube Video Manager. But starting today, you also have a more efficient way to download your videos from YouTube. With Google Takeout, you can download all of the original videos that you have uploaded in a few simple clicks. No transcoding or transformation -- you’ll get exactly the same videos that you first uploaded. Your videos in. Your videos out.

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

We announced our commitment to carbon neutrality back in 2007, and since then we’ve been finding ways to power our operations with as much renewable energy as possible. In our latest step toward this end, we just signed an agreement with the Grand River Dam Authority (GRDA) to green the energy supply to our Oklahoma data center with 48 MW of wind energy from the Canadian Hills Wind Project in Oklahoma, which is expected to come online later this year.

We’ve been working with GRDA, our local utility, to procure additional renewable energy since we “plugged in” our data center in 2011, and in February of 2012, GRDA approached us about purchasing power from Canadian Hills. In conjunction with the electricity GRDA already supplies Google to operate its data center, Google will pay GRDA a premium to purchase renewable energy generated by Canadian Hills. This brings the total amount of renewable energy for which Google has contracted to over 260 MW.

This agreement is a milestone for GRDA because it’s their first-ever wind energy project. It’s also a milestone for Google because it’s a little different from the previous Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) we’ve signed, where we agreed to buy the energy directly from the developer who built the wind farm. This agreement, by contrast, marks the first time we’ve partnered with a utility provider to increase the amount of renewable energy powering one of our data centers.

Although both options can make sense depending on the circumstances, we’re excited about this collaboration because it makes the most of our respective strengths: utilities like GRDA are best positioned to integrate renewable energy into their generation mix and to deliver power; we’re a growing company with a corporate mandate to use clean energy for our operations in a scalable way. We’ve been working closely with all of our utility partners to find ways to source renewables directly, and we look forward to working with other suppliers to deliver clean energy to our data centers.

We’re living in an always-connected culture -- in fact, the average American spends a full 2 months of their waking year online (emarketer, 2011). That’s time spent at work, on the go with mobile phones, and on the couch with tablets. With this wide array of screens, how do you reach your audience, and your performance goals -- at scale and with efficiency? The Google Display Network has the reach and technology to help get your message to the right customer, at the right time, all across the web -- no matter the device or channel. But putting together an optimized performance campaign to reach this fragmented audience can be a real challenge -- so we decided to bring you your very own toolkit -- The Google Display Network Playbook for Performance Marketers.Over the next few months we’ll highlight specific sections of the playbook. You’ll get more familiar with all the different steps of display that make it excellent for performance -- including targeting, creative, bidding, measurement, and optimization. We’ll turn our spotlight first on learning more about how display works with your performance goals, with topics such as:

How reach + precision = performance

With 93% reach to US Internet advertisers, and sophisticated technology to find your specific audience, you’re more likely to reach performance goals at scale.

Performance across all devices and channels

In this always connected, yet fragmented, world, the Google Display Network spans across devices (desktop, mobile and tablet) and channels (social and video) to connect you to your potential customers, wherever they are.

Increasing the holistic value of your campaigns with display

Search and display campaigns complement and reinforce each other. What’s more, tools like remarketing help you re-engage with users that have already shown interest by visiting your site.

Download the playbook today, and stay tuned for even more ways that the Google Display Network can help you drive results in your performance campaigns.Posted by Mary Shirley, Product Marketing Manager, Google Display Network

(Cross-posted from the Official YouTube Partners & Creators Blog)Growing a global audience on YouTube means having your videos reach many people, speaking many languages. So today we’ve made it easier for you to translate YouTube video captions into more than 300 languages. See more details in the help center, or follow the step-by-step instructions below: Getting started You’ll first need a caption track for your video, so if you don’t yet have one you can learn how to make one here. Select “Request translation” in the YouTube Video Manager, choose the languages you’d like to translate into, and click “Next.” We’ll create caption translation documents that you can now invite anyone to help translate, or you can translate yourself. To translate the captions yourself, select the language, and it’ll open up the caption translation document in the Google Translator Toolkit editor to help your translate faster.Watch while you translate To give you context on the captions, we’ve also embedded the YouTube video in the editor so you can watch as you translate. For several languages we’ll provide first draft of the translation using Google’s machine translation technology. We’ll also provide preview of what the translated caption looks like on the video so you can make sure the translated captions fit. Publish and enjoy Click “Publish to YouTube” when you’re finished, and we’ll publish the translated caption back to your YouTube video. If you’re not the video owner, we’ll notify the owner via email that there’s a pending translation waiting to be approved and published.By providing translated captions, you’ll not only make your video globally accessible but also improve discoverability in other languages. Now you can increase your audience by reaching more people around the world.Posted by Jeff Chin and Brad Ellis, product managers, who recently watched “Life in a Day” which is subtitled in 26 languages.

Editors note: Today’s guest blogger is Denise Stephens, CIO and Information Management director of the Idaho National Laboratory (INL). INL joins a growing number of government agencies that have made the switch to Google Apps for Government.

Located in southeastern Idaho on nearly 900 square miles of desert, the Idaho National Laboratory is the lead lab for nuclear research for the U.S. Department of Energy (DoE). Employees at INL work on diverse projects that include making batteries used on United States space missions, developing new technologies for nuclear reactors, protecting critical infrastructure and operating the world’s 64th fastest supercomputer.

System integrator Unisys recently completed the migration of nearly 5,000 INL employees to Google Apps for Government from Lotus Notes. INL has not taken this transition lightly. We have spent the better part of a year developing requirements, engaging in internal pilots to mitigate risk and overcoming emerging challenges as a cross-organizational team to smooth our move to the cloud. Google Apps is the right investment to move the laboratory forward while meeting the lab’s important requirements.

Due to our remote location, having a reliable, redundant email system is paramount. Google Apps’ track record of 99.9% uptime gives INL employees’ confidence that their email will be there when they need it. Some INL employees work in facilities in the city of Idaho Falls, while many others work at our complex in the desert, some 30 miles away. In the past, this geographic separation made it harder for employees to share information. Google Apps is improving communications by allowing employees to work together in real-time with voice and video chat, calendar sharing and simultaneous document editing.

In this case, INL simply couldn’t afford not to go to the cloud. This move is less expensive, and allows the lab to take a flexible, nimble and cost effective approach to lab communications. Instead of managing infrastructure, INL has chosen to invest in capabilities that support the lab’s critical mission areas.

Whether you’re looking for directions, checking email or sharing a picture with friends, apps are now an indispensable part of life. And if you’re using Android, it all starts with Google Play, home to 675,000 apps and games. That’s a lot of choice. We’ve now crossed 25 billion downloads from Google Play, and to celebrate we’re offering some great discounts for the next five days.

Every day you’ll be able to choose from a collection of apps from some of the world’s top developers including Gameloft, Electronic Arts, Rovio, runtastic, Full Fat and more. And all for just 25 cents. We’ll also be offering some special collections like 25 movies you must own, 25 banned books, 25 albums that changed the world and our 25 top selling magazines, all at special prices. Visit Google Play a little later today to check them out.

Twenty-five billion is more than twice the distance, in miles, that the Voyager 1 spacecraft has travelled since its launch 35 years ago. It’s the amount of time, in minutes, that have passed since some of our earliest ancestors began to set foot in Europe. And now, thanks to all of you, it’s a Google Play milestone. We look forward to the next 25 billion.

In the spirit of making Google Maps more comprehensive and accessible to people around the world, today we’re introducing Google Street View imagery of Chile and Croatia. We hope that these images are useful to both locals who want to scope out their own neighborhoods as well as tourists who are planning trips to either of these scenic countries.You can now can explore the streets of three Chilean cities: Concepción, Santiago and Valparaíso. In Santiago, you can discover the Mercado Central in Santiagoand see why this tourist spot was named one of the world's ten best in its class.

Moving west, scope out the steep streets and beautiful views of the Port of Valparaíso from your computer before heading out with your own camera. Or go a few hundred miles south of Santiago to Concepción, where you can “walk” across the extensive bridge over the Bio Bio River.

In Croatia, we’ve mapped many towns and cities; from the bustling city centre of the capital Zagreb, to picturesque coastal towns like Split and Dubrovnik. Virtual tourists now can explore the old city of Dubrovnik with its impressive Gothic and Renaissance architecture such as the Assumption Cathedral below. Although suffering severe damage during an earthquake in the mid-17th century, many churches, monasteries and palaces are still well preserved and can be seen in Street View.

Another must-see location is St. Mark’s Square, build around the Church of St. Mark, the parish church in the old part of Zagreb. The square is also the place where Croatia’s presidents are inaugurated.

Since launching the Street View feature of Google Maps in 2007, we’ve captured imagery from more than 3,000 cities and 40 countries around the world. Chile and Croatia are just two of the newest locations people can explore in the Street View feature of Google Maps. Visit maps.google.com/streetview to learn more. Posted by Ulf Spitzer, Program Manager, Google Maps

Today we’re adding the very first underwater panoramic images to Google Maps, the next step in our quest to provide people with the most comprehensive, accurate and usable map of the world. With these vibrant and stunning photos you don’t have to be a scuba diver—or even know how to swim—to explore and experience six of the ocean’s most incredible living coral reefs. Now, anyone can become the next virtual Jacques Cousteau and dive with sea turtles, fish and manta rays in Australia, the Philippines and Hawaii.

Get up close and personal with sea turtles at Heron Island, Great Barrier Reef

We’re partnering with The Catlin Seaview Survey, a major scientific study of the world’s reefs, to make these amazing images available to millions of people through the Street View feature of Google Maps. The Catlin Seaview Survey used a specially designed underwater camera, the SVII, to capture these photos.

The Catlin Seaview Survey team on location on the Great Barrier Reef, encountering a manta ray

Whether you’re a marine biologist, an avid scuba diver or a landlocked landlubber, we encourage you to dive in and explore the ocean with Google Maps. Check out our complete underwater collection, featuring a Google+ underwater Hangout from the Great Barrier Reef. And you can always explore more imagery from around the world by visiting maps.google.com/streetview.

Today we’re adding the very first underwater panoramic images to Google Maps, the next step in our quest to provide people with the most comprehensive, accurate and usable map of the world. With these vibrant and stunning photos you don’t have to be a scuba diver—or even know how to swim—to explore and experience six of the ocean’s most incredible living coral reefs. Now, anyone can become the next virtual Jacques Cousteau and dive with sea turtles, fish and manta rays in Australia, the Philippines and Hawaii.

Get up close and personal with sea turtles at Heron Island, Great Barrier Reef (View Larger Map)

We’re partnering with The Catlin Seaview Survey, a major scientific study of the world’s reefs, to make these amazing images available to millions of people through the Street View feature of Google Maps. The Catlin Seaview Survey used a specially designed underwater camera, the SVII, to capture these photos.

The Catlin Seaview Survey team on location on the Great Barrier Reef, encountering a manta ray (View Larger Map)

Whether you’re a marine biologist, an avid scuba diver or a landlocked landlubber, we encourage you to dive in and explore the ocean with Google Maps. Check out our complete underwater collection, featuring a Google+ underwater Hangout from the Great Barrier Reef. And you can always explore more imagery from around the world by visiting maps.google.com/streetview.